Orthodontic brackets, often referred to as “braces”, are dental devices used to guide tooth movement during orthodontic treatment. Brackets are manufactured with specific “prescriptions” which are designed to produce ideal positions of the teeth based on average anatomical size and shape of the teeth. Brackets are typically manufactured in specific dimensions, with the most common sizes of brackets having working surfaces (slots) in 0.018×0.025 inch and 0.022×0.025 inch dimensions. Either of these measurements allows for an arch wire of similar dimension to be placed in the slot and used to assist in the movement of teeth.
These brackets are typically made of either stainless steel, titanium, plastic composites, or ceramic material and are normally affixed to the teeth of an individual, by the use of cement or another type of bonding agent, and are adapted to receive a wire which is formed and deployed in the brackets (e.g., in the mouth of a patient) in order to provide therapeutic force or pressure on the patient's teeth. The combination of the brackets and the wire are often sometimes collectively referred to as a “bracket system” or an “orthodontic appliance system”.
While such prior and currently utilized bracket systems do allow therapeutic pressure to be applied to a patient's teeth, they suffer from some drawbacks. By way of example and without limitation, as the therapy is applied to the patient (i.e., over time) positional modifications may need to be made to the brackets or different brackets may be optimally needed. This “bracket repositioning” or “replacement” is complicated and time consuming because the currently utilized brackets must be forcibly removed from the patient's teeth (e.g., removed from the cement or adhering agent), the teeth must be cleaned and “re-prepped” (an etching agent and a new application of an adhering agent must be deployed on the teeth), and the new or modified brackets must be replaced on the newly prepped teeth. The process is uncomfortable to the patient and is relatively costly due to the need for additional etching and adhesive material and the time needed to achieve the change or modification. Moreover, sometimes the deployed brackets become broken or are in need of repair and must be removed from the patient's teeth to become serviced, thereby requiring the same sort of previously described process and relatively the same sort of cost and discomfort.
Further, different sorts of brackets or attachments may be used on a patient, within a certain time, to better allow or control certain tooth movements, or to adjust for variable tooth anatomy and the phase of treatment such as alignment, leveling, space closure or finishing (i.e., each patient may experience different amounts and types of therapy with a certain bracket).
In addition, traditional bracket systems generally rely on active ligation using elastomeric or wire ligatures wrapped about the tie wings of the bracket to hold the archwire onto the archwire slot. This binding creates friction during orthodontic tooth movement and consequently increases the forces needed for leveling and sliding tooth movement during treatment. By contrast, passive self-ligating (or so-called frictionless) bracket systems, or bracket systems that do not require traditional ligatures or ligating modules, have been developed which rely on a principle that forces employed to reposition teeth should not overwhelm the supporting periodontium and facial musculature. Forces applied should instead be minimized to a level just large enough to stimulate cellular activity and, thus, tooth movement without unnecessarily disturbing the vascular supply to the periodontium.
Several self-ligating (ligatureless) orthodontic brackets have been designed. Some are passive and some are active. However, most of those have complex designs, incorporating features requiring prohibitively expensive machining operations or comprising multiple separate parts, which in turn increases the number of failure modes for such brackets. Other designs have been rejected in the marketplace due to poor quality or poor design, a lack of available features, difficulty of use, or other factors.
There is therefore a need for a new and improved orthodontic bracket assembly which allows brackets and orthodontic bracket systems to be easily, quickly, and cost effectively deployed upon the teeth of a patient and it is one non-limiting object of the present invention to provide such an improved orthodontic bracket system. Such an orthodontic bracket system should also incorporate a passive self-ligating capability to reduce unwanted friction.